Video: Jeep accidently shows off Fiat-based CUV *UPDATE

There have been plenty of murmurings about how Fiat's partnership with Chrysler will impact the Jeep brand. Exactly how much platform sharing will occur between the Italian automaker and the Pentastar's globe-roaming purveyor of SUVs has been a hot topic amongst the Jeep faithful for some time. Now it appears that a video posted on YouTube by user thejeepchannel has given the world its first glance at a new Fiat-based crossover set to wear the famous seven-slot grille. In the video, a Jeep intern learns a bit about the company's design process, all while hovering around a clay model of one very CUV-looking creation.

Chrysler has made no qualms about the fact that it will produce an SUV on the C-Evo platform, and has even made noise about which of the company's manufacturing facilities will build the vehicle.

Our guess is that the clay model in the video is none other than that very high-rider. Judging by the clay, the CUV will wear a host of typical Jeep design cues, including squared-off fender arches and overhangs. Follow the jump to see for yourself.

*Update:Chrysler has released the following statement concerning the vehicle in the video:

"While we certainly appreciate the interest, the clay model and sketches in the YouTube video represent past design studies, not the future of Jeep design. This and similar videos are targeted toward college students and the youth market in general, to build excitement about the Jeep brand, and to provide a glimpse into some of the processes we go through to create iconic Jeep vehicles."

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Anonymous

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"This and similar videos are targeted toward college students and the youth market in general, to build excitement about the Jeep brand."

Are you huffing paint? I have generated more buzz by dragging my socks across carpet.

And on a side note, In my 20+ years of being a car enthusiast, I have never seen a car company come out and say that a leaked photo isn't real. Seems like Chrysler got caught with there pants down on this one and someone is trying to save there jobs.

I am shocked to here about there financial problems with genius's like that running the place. Pure amateur hour.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Have a modern version of the Cherokee replace the Liberty, maybe on the D-evo platform, have this replace the Patriot, and maybe have a modern version of the Jeepster on the Panda platform,and I'll become a Jeep fan again.

Anonymous

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Man, can't Jeep just stay Jeep and not start making so many fake SUVs. That, IMO, is part of why so many brands have been killed off - they were allow to stray from their brand ID and brand mission and just become homogenous across the corporation (i.e., Chevy, Pontiac, Saturn or Ford, Mercury). Jeep needs to be Jeep, not Chrysler or Fiat. Jeep service a significant niche and watering it down and making it just another rebadge brand will put it on a path to killing it off.

Anonymous

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Anonymous

4 Years Ago

I just see it as incrementalism. Let's bring in this car platform for some volume profit. And then this platform starts migrating across the brand and before long the overall brand mission of Jeep is gone.

Look what happened to Pontiac. It went from "We Build Excitement!" to "We Build Another Version of a Chevy.". If Pontiac had (been allowed to) stayed true to its brand mission, it would probably still be around making affordable performance oriented and fun cars.

But, perhaps it won't happen in Jeeps case. I hope not. But I remember when Hummer was thought of as super-rugged, uber off-roader and then GM bought it became a mall-trawlling, soccer-mom mobile (alternate Suburban) because they got more volume. And now its gone because, surprise, surprise, it was redundant.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

I own a Wrangler Unlimited and have owned and loved many Jeeps, and this particular Jeep fan has no problem with a compact, unibody Jeep with heavy influence from a European manufacturer.

That's the sort of mashup that brought us the Cherokee, which is universally acknowledged to be one of the most significant Jeeps ever. It wasn't an all-out rock-pounder, but a utilitarian vehicle that could haul a family, take on all but the nastiest trails, and tow a small trailer.

Jeep is best exemplified by the Wrangler, but it's not only the Wrangler. It's also the Cherokee, Jeepster, Patriot, and Grand Cherokee, too. The Cherokee was great, the GC is great, and the Patriot, while cheaply built and specc'ed, is quite offroad capable.

This isn't going to be a Fiat rebadge. It's going to be a Jeep on a Fiat platform. As the Patriot has shown, a small Jeep can be surprisingly offroad capable even if it's based on a car-based platform. There are plenty of crossovers that can take on rough trails - the Outback and Forester come to mind. If it's utilitarian, attractive, and reasonably capable both on and offroad, it'll fill a niche in the Jeep lineup that has existed for 30 years.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Sometimes companies need to give into popular demand purely to make enough profit to keep making the niche vehicles we have all come to love. As much as Porsche purists may scoff at the Cayenne and Panamera, they are paving the way for the future of the 'more pure' 911 and Boxster, and the same could be said for Jeep.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Sorry, Jake, I just don't think those examples are germane.

Pontiac was always a Chevrolet alternate; with the exception of a very few models, they never "built excitement." Jeep builds and continues to build shockingly capable offroaders; my Wrangler Unlimited has, bone stock, done things that made people wonder if I was sane. The new Grand Cherokee, too, is Rubicon-capable. A smaller, more efficient, but still capable vehicle can still handle a fire trail and deliver a reasonable driving experience in normal driving - and that's just as much a part of Jeep's heritage as Wranglers are.

Hummer didn't have brand heritage beyond the H1, and the image of that model was huge, expensive, hulking, and militaristic. They couldn't sell Hummers that weren't hulking and militaristic because that was Hummer's entire image. Jeep, on the other hand, has been building Wagoneers, Cherokees, CJs, Jeepsters, and the like forever. They've got a history selling something other than just the Wrangler, and so it's not out of character for them to build a latter-day Cherokee or Jeepster. Jeeps have been very popular with offroaders, fishermen, hikers, campers, and the like, and so they've got a brand identity that can swing a smaller, more carlike model.

And finally, if this is incrementalism, we've been stalled at this increment for 30 years or more. The Cherokee was the first small, unibody, rough road-not-offroad oriented Jeep, and that came out in the early 80s. Before that they had the Wagoneer. All of those were efforts to expand Jeep's niche.